The last person who understands X

As I have grown in my career, what I see with myself and peers is that communication about my domain (tech) with others become challenging. More often than not, this is the case of me being the last/only person in the corporate hierarchy at the top who knows Tech deeply.

Similarly, I see people from other domains say design struggling to communicate their nuanced challenges with me. I saw myself and people in my organisations facing such challenges as soon as we reached a relatively “senior” level. Simple conversations become tough, funding and sponsorship becomes tough because the person having the authority “just doesn’t get it”. This brought a lot of frustration early on.

Over time, I realised that this is probably how it’s supposed to be. As one becomes the sole representative of a particular domain or subject matter in a group, there needs to be a conversational bridge that needs to be created for others to get it. I think the onus of it falls equally on me and the other party, but more on me if I need to get something approved. I need to speak out things in a language that the person in-front understands. Which means that I need to have some idea about their domain.

“Know thy neighbour as thyself” is a good adage in this context. Learning a bit more to a good enough degree of depth about the domain/subjects/departments that I work with has helped me in creating this bridge.

Since I am in the journey of exploring and refining my life’s “why”, often I tend to confuse knowing other’s domain with being in that. This used to bother me a bit, but lately what I have found is that this fusion-defusion with others is necessary to truly develop empathy with them and their domain, and with luck if everyone else does it, there is a chance that together we get to climb the Tower of Babel.